The Coming Storm
by How-I-Became-The-Sea
Summary: A young, nameless kit, alone in Twolegplace, is drawn by a prophecy to the mysterious forest. He meets an equally mysterious she-cat, a native of this 'forest,' who agrees to guide him. But his trials are only beginning... Rated T for safety. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! I originally wrote this stroy for the Warriors forums, but not I'm reposting it here. By the way, it takes place in the past, so it's not technically an alternate universe, but it might conflict with the DOTC plot.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Warriors. There, I said it.**

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><p>I<em> have seen much. Much more than you would believe.<em>

_Your elders tell tales of my heroic deeds. But their stories hardly compare to the true story - unchanged with time, unwavering in details._

_You are about to see history unfold - the pain, the despair, the battles, and most of all, the hope - from the eyes of those who were there. _

_Those who made history._

The first thing I remember was being alone.

I raced through the streets, lost and confused. I didn't know of the world, then. I only knew the dark and cold of the alleys, the reek of Twoleg food gone to waste, the roughness of the strange black ground beneath my tiring paws. Actually, I'm not sure I was even aware of that, at the time. I only knew that I was scared, and hungry, and tired, and that I was looking for... well, I didn't know what, yet.

Sometimes things chased me. Twolegs, monsters, dogs, it didn't matter to me. I just kept running. I didn't know what they were, and I didn't care if they wanted to hurt me or help me. As far as I knew, I was born running, and I was still running, and I was going to keep running forever.

At least, that's what I thought.

I don't know how long I held out for. Time wasn't important to me then. I don't remember the sun rising or setting. I don't think I would have cared if the sun fell on top of me. I would probably have kept running, right out of myself and into Starclan, and kept running, without distraction or hesitation.

But there was a time when nothing chased me. Of course, the world was still out to get me. Rain started to pour down. I didn't know what it was, this cold wetness coming down from the sky, but my only thought was to get the stuff out of my fur so that I could keep going.

I ran into yet another dark alley. Trash was littered everywhere, and the entire place was filled with a horrible, indescribable reek. Of course, it might have been flowers and catmint, for all I cared.

Then I did something that I hadn't done, ever, in my entire life.

I sat down.

And at that moment, I realized that there was nothing more important that lying down and closing my eyes. There was nothing more important than sleep.

I don't know if he came before or after I blacked out. But I saw him, saw him as clearly as my own paws, when there was nothing more important than running.

His fur? There was no color. He was covered in a shadow, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not see anything but his eyes.

But his eyes. They were a piercing blue, and the longer I looked into them, the more convinced I was that he knew. He knew what had happened to me, and what would happen to me, and he had known even before I was born, even before my ancestors were born. And in the future, when I would be nothing more than a memory, and my body would have long since crumbled to dust, well, he would know that, too.

He spoke to me. If you value your sanity, do not ask me to describe his voice.

He said to me, "Go to the forest, young one." None of that prophecy mumbo-jumbo you get today. _After the sharp-eyed jay and the roaring lion, blood will spill blood and the lake will run red, _no, none of what they say these days makes any sense. He told me, "Go to the forest."

So I did the only logical thing I could think of, in that state.

I went to the forest.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke.

The first thing I thought was: _Why aren't I moving?_ I looked down at my paws as if staring at them would somehow cause them to move again. Then I realized that I couldn't feel them at all. Because for all I knew, I had been running for my whole life, and that, I learned, can take a lot out of a cat.

I flopped back down again. Some primitive instinct drove me to lick my fur, so I did. The taste horrified me, the dirt and soot from the streets mixed with the tang of smoke from the Twoleg monsters. I had never before experienced taste, and this was not a good first impression. I quickly gave that up.

Move. I needed to move. Get out. Away. Get to the… forest.

I had no idea what that could be. I had seen a few trees before, but never paid attention. I was too busy running for my life, and my sanity. That, of course, wouldn't stop me. Who cares? The world couldn't be that big, that I couldn't find this "forest" in a few days, at the most. Not that I knew what a day was. Not that I knew who I was.

That was when I first looked at myself. The dirt and smoke coated most of me, but in the part of my shoulder that I had begun to clean, I saw a new color. An unmistakable orange.

Sunlight blared down at me, suddenly coming out from behind its cloudy cover. It glinted off my fur, and I was blinded with this sudden light, a light I had never before seen.

Or had I?

I gasped, and then it came to me.

_A mother. Flower, that was her name. Brothers, sisters. Nameless. We were all nameless. _

_Mouse. I caught a mouse. Flower was so proud. She… she said to eat it. We didn't listen. We played with it. My sister batted it into the air. Orange. I remember the orange._

_Dogs! They came for the prey, for the fresh blood. But when they found us… well, we were even fresher._

_The chase. Screaming, barking, yowls. I didn't understand. So I ran._

_Then something hit me. Ran into me. I was knocked out. And then I woke up, and I ran._

So that was it. My life. But at least I had a memory. Something to live off of. A hope. A chance.

I got to my feet. A pain shot up my legs, through my spine, and straight to the tips of my ears. I staggered, but stood my ground. "No. I have to make it!" I growled. My own voice was a surprise, as up until now I had not known any words. It gave me another burst of strength, another reason to live.

"Make it where, exactly?"

That was how I met my best friend. In bloody, yowling battle for my life.


	3. Chapter 3

I barely had time to get the hoarse yowl past my aching, closed-up throat before there were claws pressed up against it. Choking for breath, I soon realized that my struggles were merely depleting my energy, and I tried going limp. Wheezing from pain and lack of oxygen, I looked up to the face above me.

She was pure black, but probably only with dirt and soot, like me. Her eyes glared with a fierceness that surprised me. I had not even seen this in the dogs that had tried to kill me. It was the face of someone who had lost, again and again, and was only stronger because of it. The face of someone convinced the world was against her, and preferred it that way.

I slashed at her face.

Snarling, she leaped back. I scrambled to right myself, gasping for air, only to have it knocked out of me again as she barreled into me headfirst. She blindly slashed me, again and again, knowing I could not get up, knowing that I would never get up. I could not call out, I could not even scream as her claws cut into me. As my vision clouded, as my eyes closed, I chose to use my remaining breath for one last thing before I departed this world.

"Mother…"

And as I whispered to the she-cat I would never know, the claws stopped. Or I had ceased to feel them. I opened my eyes. Maybe I would see my mother after all. Had she been killed by the dogs? I hadn't seen.

But what I saw now was very confusing.

The black she-cat stared at me with horror. She backed away, whispering under her breath, "No, no, no, no…"

I wondered why she didn't kill me. She'd already gotten go far. Was I to suffer, bleeding slowly to death?

The cat spoke up, and her voice was a different one than the one that had snarled at me. "A kit… I've harmed a kit… I'm not fit to live…"

Carefully, painfully, I spoke. "Didn't you… want to?"

She yowled in anguish. "No, no, no! I mean, I did, but no! Not a kit, not you!" She hastily ran over to me and licked my wounds.

I was still confused, but her licks soothed me, and I spoke to her. "Who are you? Where are you from?"

She paused. "I… have no name." So we were alike. "I am from a place I can not return to. A forest of lies."

Forest.

Fireworks exploded in my head as I jerked it upwards. With a yowl of pain, I sat it back down again. "Take… me… I have to… go there…"

"The… the forest? You are a kit, you have horrible injuries, it's no place for you! Why would anyone in their right mind…" She was angry again, and I found I liked her much more when she was fearsome rather than motherly. "Please… I… I need to go! It's my path! I need to be there!"

She looked slowly at me. "You will not survive on your own. I can not stay there. And would you trust a complete stranger to bring you there safely?"

"I would trust you. And I won't be alone there."

Somehow I knew. This strange cat would take me there. And the tom from my dream, he knew. He would be with me. I would not be alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Naturally, the she-cat took me in, not only as payment of her debt to me, but also because of my fierce determination to journey to the place that would kill me. She saw in me, I later learned, a reflection of her own rash persistence, and though she felt pride, she also feared for me. No matter how much she hated it, how much it went against her ways, she feared for me.

And as we left the damp alley and met the warm embrace of the sun, as we padded lazily down the hard, white paths, as we were stroked by the passing Twolegs I had so recently run from like we were welcome there, the she-cat told me of life. Not her own, of course; it was a subject she always avoided. No, she told me of the lush wilderness of her home, of the scurrying prey, of the thrill of the hunt, of sinking her teeth into her own kill for the first time. And when I finally noticed the beating sunlight, and my pale-faced enemies reaching down to brush my fur, she told me of these things, too. Of the passing of seasons, the leaves that were to fall and disappear, the crystals that would blanket the ground as we slept; of the Twolegs, their ugly, fearsome monsters, their strangely shaped nests in which the held many animals captive. She had once seen a bird in one of the nests; she thought perhaps it was being kept for a snack.

When we left the TwolegPlace that had been my entire world, and exchanged it for a new one full of scents and sounds, colors and light, I barely noticed until the she-cat began to bat at the leaves that, true to her word, were already falling. I stared upward, at the golden light filtering through the leaves, making my newly cleaned pelt shine like the fire in my heart, and joined in the game! Never had I, nor have I ever since, experienced such joy! The world was so new, so wonderful; it filled me to the brim. This cat had given me life, as far as I was concerned; my days, or weeks, spent in TwolegPlace had been nothing, nothing at all.

But the hardships had been nothing. Not compared to what we would face. Only StarClan knew that our destinies would be far greater than batting at leaves. And as I have learned since, they were discussing it at that very moment.


	5. Chapter 5

**Dead cat POV!**

I am Hare, the first spirit-tamer of my ancient family. We were esteemed hunters and fighters, and the Forest of Rising Sun was our domain. Any mates we desired were always ours. But we were unhappy, for we feared death. Only I, among my powerful kin, discovered the ancient magic that would give me a life as a spirit, to watch over the world. I have lived as a loner, meeting some other spirits on my travels, and remained alone. Until the meeting.

I was surprised at the location. It was above the forest I had once called home, I had once ruled. I had not gone back since my death, ages ago, but it seemed my small family had grown into a large group that had spread through the entire forest. I scanned their minds, and was disappointed to find that they did not remember their noble heritage. I was angrier still to find that they were not even unified any longer. This would change.

The domain that we spirits lived in, above the earth, merely consists of green grass beneath our feet, and the occasional plant or stream. I was therefore astonished at the large clearing, full of many plants and even the spirits of prey. I was even more surprised at the number of spirits I had not known existed. How many people know of this magic?

As I padded scornfully into the clearing, I noticed a family of three who seemed to be revered by many. The cats had parted all around them to make space. I tasted their scents, and jumped slightly. They were older than I, centuries older! Millennia!

"Mother, why can I not speak?" asked the kit. "It was _my_ vision!"

"Hush, Brightspirit, do you wish us to be scorned for the next decade?" scolded the mother. "Alright, you may speak your part."

"But only that," said the father. "You will not discuss strategy. There are many older warriors here who will make the decisions."

"They be older in looks, but I-" Brightspirit's mother silenced her with her tail-tip and stepped forward. "Greetings, spirits. We are gathered here for a most grievous circumstance. As the older among us know, we are sometimes summoned together here for important meetings." I had not known this. Hmph. "Today, we are called because of a vision from my young daughter. Brightspirit? If you will step up to the pool?"

Her daughter sniffed, almost haughtily, and padded forward. She pressed her tail tip to the water, and the spirits crowded around to look. I stared down, astonished.

The pool showed many, horrible images. The cats of the forest, _my_ forest, fighting a battle that would last till the moon rose and set. Blood dampening the ground like rain. The sacred place my family often used to make speeches, littered with bodies. Five cats stepping up from the carnage, to take leadership. And… what was this? Spirits of the recently dead? But how? How could they all know the ancient magic?

Many murmurs arose at this, but Brightspirit's mother spoke. "Do not worry, friends. This place, this clearing we have used for meetings, has been so filled with our magic that the land below it has taken it in. Their spirits will now be instantly taken here. And with every soul to enter here, the clearing will grow." As she spoke, a tree erupted from the ground, growing to full size in an instant. "The spirits will watch over the forest, and we will no longer be needed here."

"But now for the other visions," said Brightspirit, and her father growled. "As you have all seen, this forest is not inhabited by many cats, housecat and forest-born alike." My ancestors noble blood? Tainted by kittypets? "But a great battle is approaching. A cat of the purest evil had amassed many followers, terror and bloodlust in their souls. They will kill many, and from the remains…" She showed the vision of the five cats again. "The forest will assume new leadership."

"Those five?" A cat spoke up. "They must lead? Why, they're no more than kits."

"And how shall _five_ share leadership?" asked another. "Impossible. I like the looks of the black one, though. Won't just one do?"

Brightspirit's father spoke up. "Do you go against the wishes of those above? Those who did not fear death, those who have truly passed on? All prophecies come from them, and we would do well to listen."

"Yes, Braveheart, but that will do," said his mate. "We must only make sure the leaders-to-be find the forest. Two, we are certain, are already there. The three of us have each chosen one of the cats to bestow our protection upon. You," she motioned to the cat who had wanted just one leader, "will care for the... 'black one.' We have chosen you, Hare, for the last."

I was astonished. "Was this forest not your possession in life, Hare?"

"Y-yes, it was," I replied. "Who will I be protecting?"

Brightspirit flicked her tail, and in the ripples of the pool, a cat was standing.

"_That?_" I yelped. "It is just…"

"…The most important of them all," snapped Brightspirit. "His skills are already growing. For every enemy he vanquishes, he shall gain in power."

"That's enough, Brightspirit," said Braveheart. "Shiningheart, please show our guests out."

"Wait…" asked the same cat who was in favor of one leader, "When the cat… the evil cat, and his followers… when they die, will they come here? And continue to kill?"

Shiningheart spoke with a heavy voice. "This cat, and his accomplices, posses an evil so great that they will create their own place to reside. A horrible place it will be, full of only darkness. It will be called the Place of No Stars, and none shall ever escape it." She turned to leave with her family.

And, in a state of shock, I departed.


End file.
